Constitution Hall is a finalist for the 8 Wonders of Kansas because the
events that transpired inside the walls of this two-story, wood-frame
building were, without a doubt, major events leading to the American
Civil
War.

Constitution Hall, a national historic landmark, is located in the small but historic community of
Lecompton. It has
stood for more than 150 years, since 1856, as a testament to the
Herculean
struggle America waged to break the shackles of American slavery.

Photo KSF

Drafting the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution in 1857 in Constitution
Hall was one of the major dominos to fall leading this country into four
years of unimaginable civil war carnage. In terms of historical
importance,
the Lecompton Constitution ranks up there in the pre-civil war
historical
pantheon of events such as Uncle Tom's
Cabin, the Compromise of 1850, the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, the Dred Scott
Decision,
Harpers Ferry, and Lincoln's election.

Lecompton Constitutional
Convention
delegates struggled from September to November 1857 to hammer out a
constitution acceptable to both North and South. The stakes were high
for
Kansas and for the Union. The North was determined to defeat the
pro-slavery
Lecompton Constitution and stop the expansion of the peculiar
institution of
slavery into Kansas and beyond, and the South was as equally determined
to
make Kansas the next slave state in the Union, or secede from the Union
if
they failed.

The Lecompton Constitution ignited a firestorm in the
country:
it paralyzed Congress, rendered President Buchanan impotent, splintered
the
National Democratic Party into antislavery northern and proslavery
southern
wings, and guaranteed massive losses for the ruling Democratic Party in
the
next election including the White House, catapulted an obscure Illinois
politician named Abraham Lincoln and the new Republican Party onto the
national political stage and Lincoln into the White House as the first
Republican president, and pushed the country ever closer to open
warfare.

Civil War historians and history buffs alike from all over the world
make
the pilgrimage to Lecompton to visit Constitution Hall.